Khalifa

surname · Arabic · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Khalifa is a surname, most frequently recorded in Egypt. In Bahrain it is the 5th most common surname. It appears chiefly in Arabic and , written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: ‘successor’; used widely as a Muslim given name.

rarermore common
  • BHBahrain1 in 206◐
  • TNTunisia1 in 1.9K
  • AEUnited Arab Emirates1 in 1.9K

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈11K ●

across 10 countries

Sources
214 ●

77K records

Official registry-verified

1 in 36K ◐

Norway

Meaning & origin●

‘successor’; used widely as a Muslim given name. Noted bearer: Seyyid Khalifa bin Harub, Sultan of Zanzibar Protectorate (1911–1960).

Sources 1

  • African Muslim Names

Attested across 17 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Khalifa is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
EG Egypt#17213,1467.4K rec.——Khalifa139
IN India—8,886△3.8K rec.1 in 149K8.9KKhalifa79
GB United Kingdom—3,0962.5K rec.—listedKhalifa98
BH Bahrain#53,016639 rec.——Khalifa85
DE Germany—2,4122.5K rec.——Khalifa77
SY Syria#5842,2042.5K rec.——Khalifa22
UA Ukraine—2,18820 rec.——Khalifa7
AE United Arab Emirates#981,8214.3K rec.——Khalifa143
TN Tunisia#521,7341.9K rec.——Khalifa63
SA Saudi Arabia#3891,619765 rec.——Khalifa90
IR Iran—1,22110 rec.——Khalifa5
US United States—99912K rec.1 in 333K1.6KKhalifa208

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • Arabic49K30%
  • 29K18%
  • Hindi28K17%
  • French13K8%
  • English9.8K6%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
Arabic48,59030%
28,97018%
Hindi28,25317%
French13,3558%
English9,8236%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Khalifa is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Hindi surname37K records spelled Khalifa7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United Kingdom, United States, Pakistan

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Khälïfä, Khālifã, Khàlifà, Khálífå, Khãlîfà

  • a separate surname34K records spelled Khalifa3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, Morocco, Tunisia

    Also written Khalīfa, Ḵẖalīfa

  • Spanish surname7.4K records spelled Khalifa10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Spain, United States, Brazil, Philippines

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Khälifä, Khålīfä, Khálífá, Khälïfä, Khãlīfã

  • Bangla surname4.2K records spelled Khalifa16 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, United States

    Languages: Bangla, Odia

    Also written খলিফা, Kholifa, Khaleefa, Khâlîfä, Ķhalifa

  • Thai surname567 records spelled Khalifa14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Thailand, India, Laos, Nigeria

    Languages: Thai, Lao

    Also written คาลิฟา, Kalfa, Kalifa, คาลฟา, คาลีฟา

62 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Khalifa is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In English, Alternative form of caliph.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • the successor, califa; Morocco

    as a nameDicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…

  • In Arabic, successor, viceroy, caliph, viceregent

    as a nameA Dictionary of Muslim Names

  • In Arabic, successor, viceroy, vicegerent; a

    as a nameA Dictionary of Muslim Names

  • In Somali, Somali: 'holy girl'

    as a nameAfrican Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

01020301920194019601980200028 · 1988

Show as table
Khalifa in naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls), India, 1918–2015
Yearrecords
19181
19201
19241
19251
19271
19283
19291
19312
19321
19333
19344
19352
19362
19371
19383
19393
19404
19413
19423
19437
19446
194511
19465
19473
19485
19495
195010
195110
19525
195310
19549
19557
19564
19578
195811
19599
196013
19618
196213
196313
196413
196519
19668
196710
196814
196919
197013
197115
197217
197326
197421
197518
197612
197718
197824
197915
198027
198125
198225
198319
198422
198521
198624
198723
198828
198924
199018
199124
199216
199322
199426
199515
199614
199719
19985
20091
20101
20111
20124
20135
20142
20158

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 82 years between 1918–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

1850190019502000Hamad I of Bahrain, b. 1872Isa II of Bahrain, b. 1933Rashad Khalifa, b. 1935Muhammad ibn Mubarak ibn Hamad Al Khalifah, b. 1935Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, b. 1950Omer Khalifa, b. 1956Khaled Khalifa, b. 1964Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, b. 1969Mia Khalifa, b. 1993

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 63 sources across 35 countries.

Official registers attesting Khalifa
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
IN IndiaInstate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls—8.9K#1,042
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020201.6K#17,631
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010999#24,890
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—702#3,646
ES SpainINE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—618#1,802
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000575#36,672
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020343#23,940
BE BelgiumStatbel — Noms de famille (family names)—300#5,710
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—277#12,877
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—277#12,836
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—261#3,356
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1991196—

Reference works 7

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 299 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Khalifa?
We estimate roughly 11 thousand people bear Khalifa (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.
In which country does Khalifa have the most bearers?
Khalifa is most frequently recorded in Egypt, where it is most often spelled khalifa.
How common is Khalifa compared with other names?
In Egypt, Khalifa is the 172nd most common surname of 208,027 surnames recorded there.
What does the name Khalifa mean?
Recorded meaning: ‘successor’; used widely as a Muslim given name.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/khalifa

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Khalifa” — the 172nd most common surname in Egypt. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Khalifa parses inside a full name →